Roma

This past weekend we went to Rome!  We had SUCH a good time in this city and absolutely loved it.  Everyone had told us how great Rome was and how much fun we'd have but we weren't sure if it was going to live up to the hype-- like would it be dirty? Have too many tourists? etc.  It definitely surpassed our expectations and I think we were laughing the entire trip- so many funny occurrences that we actually wrote them all down on the flight back so that we wouldn't forget them.  We also realized on this trip how much each city we've visited has had its own personality and how you got such a different feeling from each city.  Prague was pretty Americanized but still a completely new place to me especially regarding the language and the fact that I've never been to Eastern Europe, cold, and also the first trip we took all together which was an unforgettable feeling; Florence was absolutely stunning, had the most amazing sites, small, very touristy, and we were laughing for most of that trip as well; Geneva was familiar, chill, expensive, and nostalgic; Paris was huge, busy (we could have easily spent a week there), stunning, chic, and romantic; Barcelona was beachy, fun, colorful, and relaxed; and Rome was ancient, powerful, touristy but still with an Italian feel, and so fun to wander around.  I think each city is going to be different for each person because a lot of what you get out of it depends on your circumstances- who you go with, how long you stay, the weather, etc. but I think it's so cool traveling to all of these cities and getting such a different feel from this place.  I think I've done a pretty good job of balancing my time in Milan and my time traveling to other cities too, which was something I was nervous about because I want to make sure I spent a good amount of time in my city and a good amount of time traveling to other cities around Europe :)

Our trip this weekend started out interesting to say the least... Okay so our easyjet flight was supposed to leave at 9:15 so Mere and I figure we can take the 6:35 train out of Garibaldi which would put us at the airport at 7:15 in plenty of time.  We get to Garibaldi to buy our train tickets and Garibaldi is unusually packed with people, which we realize is probably because there was going to be another metro strike the following day (Friday) so people probably wanted to get home earlier or something.  We go up to the Fast Ticket machine and I get my ticket no problem however Mere, who went 2 people after me in the line next to me, is not able to buy a ticket because it's sold out, which I've never heard of or seen before.  So, we contemplate our options: take an 85 Euro taxi to the airport or take the 7:35 train to the airport which would leave us with aboutttt half an hour to get to terminal 2, through security, and to our gate.  We decide to go with the 7:35 train, save the 45 euros, and be on edge for the next hour and a half.  We go to buy the 7:35 train tickets and surprise surprise: I have no problem getting a ticket but they are sold out when Mere tries to buy one.  So now we have 2 options: take an 85 euro taxi or give Mere the ticket I bought for the 6:35 train and hope that there's not a visible difference between the two and also continue being nervous wrecks until we get to our gate.  We go with the latter and low and behold, we are greeted with a near empty train and no one checking tickets and we are wondering whether we could have taken the 6:35 train after all.

When we pull into Malpensa, we have a short trot going as we ascend the moving sidewalk and make our way to the bus to take us to terminal 2 where easyjet flies out of.  Things are going well, no is requesting a stop at the weird places along the way and our short trot turns slightly faster when we get off the bus and make our way to security-- a sight to see I'm sure considering we are not only almost running but we are also the only people in Italy not wearing parkas despite the warmest temperatures it has seen this season.  We get to security, which doesn't look like it will be too bad, and our eyes are glued to the screen hoping a "boarding" in flashing colors won't appear next to our flight.  We finally make it through security and are in a slight jog trying to find our gate, which we thought we found at every corner until we kept seeing arrows continuing and pointing us further down the terminal.  As we are on this wild goose chase to find the farthest away gate in the terminal, a sir comes up behind us in a full out sprint.  Not a good sign, we resort to sprinting as well.  We finally make it to our gate, breathless, sweating, and completely relieved to see that people are lined up but haven't started boarding the plane.  Meanwhile, Linds, Emma, and her friend who are also going to Rome, give us a look like what happened?! where were you guys!  We board the flight and pick two seat at the very front of the plane and feel like we're in first class :)  On our descent into Rome, a British flight attendant explains the options we have for transportation from the airport: take an easyjet bus for 12 euro, take the train for 15 euro, or take a taxi for 60 euro.  The flight attendant asks us if we want to purchase a bus ticket and thus began the entire plane's involvement in how we would get to our hostel from the airport.  He explained the options again and the gentlemen in front of us chime in and explain that they live in Rome and that the taxi is only 40 euro so now we have the flight attendant who is trying to sell us on the easyjet bus battling it out with the random Roman men in front of us about taxi prices.  Meanwhile, we consult with Linds who is across the aisle and who is not staying with us (she was meeting her parents in Rome) but who was trying to remember what Kasia had said about taxi's (Kasia had come to Rome a fews ago and had gotten ripped off by a taxi but her parents didn't). We tell the flight attendant that we'll think about it.  A few minutes later, Emma and her friend, who are staying with us, come to the front of the plane to consult us about what we should do (they said they told the flight attendant that they were traveling with 2 other American girls and he said follow me and led them to us).  So now we have flight attendants, other friends, and random Roman men discussing how we should get from the airport to our hostel. It was such a circus!  I was debating opening up the discussion to the entire plane and taking a poll because at this point, what's a few more people joining in on the conversation anyway right?  We finally decide to just take a taxi and right before land, we have the icing on the cake: one of the flight attendants who wasn't directly involved in our situation but who could tell we were struggling earlier, offers to take us in his car to our hostel.  We were sure he was joking but it was just toooo funny at this point!  He gave Emma his number and said text only!  The real icing on the cake came on our return trip to Milan when who was one of the flight attendants? Yep, same guy who offered to drive us haha what are the odds?!

After an arduous process of getting to our hostel and checking in, we meet up with Kevin, Taylor, and Frank who were also going to Rome this weekend.  After numerous attempts to find a bar we had heard good things about, we just had a few drinks at our hostel, which had a full bar and was for the "social butterfly" our travel book so nicely pointed out!  We got up freakishly early on Friday, like 7:30 which I consider a miracle for myself, because the metro strike started after 8:30 and we wanted to see the Vatican which was definitely much easier to reach by metro than on foot.  Apparently everyone else had the same idea about using the metro because it was INSANITY trying to get on the metro.  We skipped the first one because it was too crowded and waited for the second.  Essentially, after people on the metro got off there was a mad rush to get on and instead of walking on the metro, we were CARRIED ON because of all the people pushing and shoving.  It was a stampede and we didn't have a choice of where to go or whether to get on because of all the people.  It was actually scary being so out of control of yourself and at one point, I was stuck at the doorway and luckily people kept pushing so I was further in when the doors finally did close.  I've definitely never been that close to complete strangers before and we were all baffled by the blonde woman who kept saying "permesso, permesso" which is like saying let me through, excuse me, etc.  I think everyone on the metro was confused by her, seeing that there was nowhere she could POSSIBLY go and yet she was so persistent.  At the next stop when people got off, we realized what she wanted: a seat.  Oh Italy.

We got to the Vatican around 9:15 and waited about 45 minutes to get into the Vatican museum which we didn't think was too bad.  We did contemplate putting my scarf on a pole and having me wave it around like I was a tour guide and skip the line but we decided against it.  We wandered through the museum for a good while and saw the School of Athens which was really cool because it was one of the paintings that we had discussed in my art history class.  We saw the Sistine Chapel as well, which was stunning, especially the Last Judgement, which was also another painting we studied in my art history class.  Afterwards we hung out in the gardens which were so peaceful and nice to be around especially in the beautiful weather we were having.  Then we made our way to St. Peter's Square and Basilica which we loved.  This was the part about Rome, along with the Colosseum, that I remembered most vividly.  The columns, fountain, and the Basilica make it such a powerful yet tranquil place to be, I loved it there.  You also feel the historical and religious significance of the place which makes it that much more moving.

Waiting in line to get into the Vatican

Vatican Gardens

Mere and me with St. Peter's Basilica in the background

Mere and me with a giant, revolving zipper circle?  We thought it was cool.

School of Athens

The ceiling of one of the rooms; the perspective made it looks like it continued on past the ceiling, really cool to look at especially after we had studied perspective so much in my art history class

St. Peter's Square!

 Mere, me, Emma, and Joanna

Emma, Frank, Mere, Kevin, Me, and Taylor

Fountain in St. Peter's Square

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

The area over where St. Peter is buried

We got lunch after and headed across the river to see some more sites.  At this point it was just me, Mere, Taylor, and Frank because Emma and her friend wanted to stay in the area to shop and Kevin didn't feel good because he had a bad cough.  Kevin later told us that on his way back to his hostel, some homeless guys started making fun of his cough!  Haha, it was like they were saying ha, you might have a house but at least we don't have that nasty cough of yours.  We were laughing so hard just imagining that situation happening.  The entire afternoon was so nice... we were laughing the entire time and just wandering around Rome, almost stumbling on the big sites.  I finally saw the benefit of getting up so early-- we had so much time to see everything and we didn't have to rush around to make sure we saw what we wanted to see.  We also had most of Saturday to see things as well so we didn't have to cram everything into one day.  We saw the Castel Sant'An and the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele II on our way to the Trevi Fountain and it was so cool to just kind of discover these sights as we wandered through Rome.  

 
The bridge near Castel Sant'An

Rome's government building with Vittorio Emanuele II in the front

Trevi Fountain!

Me, Mere, Frank, and Taylor... hoping we come back to Rome!

After we hung out around the Trevi Fountain and through our coins in the water, we headed towards the Spanish Steps.  The Spanish Steps were beautifullll!  I loved it up there, it was so nice taking pictures, browsing at all of the artists' work at the top of them, and just laying out on the steps.  If I studied abroad in Rome, I'm sure I would go there all the time to soak up the sun and/or do work.  The top of the steps were as crowded with tourists either, which was nice, it was mostly the bottom where tourists became a little overwhelming.  After we had had our fill of sun bathing and chilling on the Steps, we had a caffe and then took a taxi back to our hostel... I really wished we would have had a pedometer on this trip because we walked soooo much.  Rome isn't that big of city and so the metro doesn't really help you out as far as sight-seeing goes, plus the metro workers were on strike almost all of Friday.  We only took the metro once while we were there, which was such a change from Paris and Barcelona where the question was never should we walk or take a metro, it was always where's the nearest metro and what line do we need?  It was a nice change, despite how much my feet staged a revolt on me after the weekend, I enjoy walking and I felt like walking around Rome was the best part of the trip, not just seeing the main sights.  

Wandering around, making our way to the Spanish Steps

View from the top of the Spanish Steps; behind where I was taking this picture were all of the artists selling their work.  I've been collecting little paintings from each city I visit so I had a field day in Rome when there were artists everywhere with the most beautiful paintings!

Another view from the top

Taylor, Frank, Mere, and me at the top

And us at the bottom

We took naps back at the hostel and then headed to Scholar's Lounge, an Irish Pub Mere's friend recommended to us.  Funny story, for a good 2 minutes I thought I was locked in the bathroom!  The door wasn't budging and I had no cell phone service inside the bathroom!  Pretty scary, until I remembered that the door slid open and didn't push open haha I was relieved to say the least.  After the pub, we went to the Ice Bar which was exactly that.  Essentially, you pay 15 euro to put on a parka and have a drink in an ice glass in what was essentially a freezer with funky lights.  It was such an experience, I've never done anything like it!  Not sure it was worth the 15 euro but it was so ridiculous that we just laughed through it.  Plus we got some great pictures out of it and when else would you be able to say you went to an Ice Bar, right?

Mere and me at Scholar's Lounge

Ice Bar time

Mere and me, we look like penguins!

Us with our drinks!

The next day (Saturday), we got up at the crack of dawn again... 7:30 bright and early, not sure why but I think it had something to do with the sun blazing into our room.  Anyway, we got up, got ready, packed up our stuff, and checked out of the hostel (they held our bags for us until it was time for us to leave for the airport).  Mere and I sauntered down into Rome, stopped at a caffe place and a few souvenir shops, and eventually stumbled on the Pantheon!  We asked a cute old lady to take a picture for us and she ended up taking about 10 with different angles and different things in the background... it was so funny and the pictures turned out so good!  She was the cutest and we wanted to ask her if she hired out and would follow us around with the camera for the rest of the day haha. 

Pantheon

Next we met up with Taylor, Frank, and Kevin at the Colosseum and after waiting about 45 minutes, made our way inside!  Before we went inside, we took note of the numorous gladiators who want you to take a picture with them and especially enjoyed the 2 very hard working gladiators we saw at one point.  While all of the other gladiators were heckling tourists and generally acting very "in character," these two sirs were in a position one usually occupies when they are sunbathing on the beach, their gladiator helmets replaced with backwards baseball caps, and smoking.  Too funny, they were definitely going to be employees of the month.  Another funny thing we noticed when we first entered the Colosseum were the numerous "visitor" signs directional arrows, guiding visitors through the Colosseum.  It just made us laugh because we weren't sure what other kind of people would be in the Colosseum?  Regulars?  Inhabitants of the Colosseum?  We just laughed the whole time thinking about different situations and how funny all of the "visitor" signs were.  We also mused at the idea of being a tour guide and completely making up facts about the Colosseum just to see if people got confused or not, like throwing Michaelangelo or Leonardo da Vinci in there, saying one of them designed the architecture or that Michaelangelo originally wanted to put the David in the center of the Colosseum but they told him no.  It was so funny imagining the ridiculous facts you could make up.

Like I said earlier, the Colosseum was one of the places that I remembered really well so it was cool to be back.  It looked a lot like what I had remembered but it was still crazy for me to think about the history in that place.  So many people came here to watch men fight to the death, it seems so barbaric to us but I had to wonder, what will people many thousands of years down the road think about what we watch and do for entertainment?  

After the Colosseum, we walked around the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill but didn't stay too long... i think there was more to see but it was hot and we were pretty tired; plus after seeing ruin after ruin, they all kinda start to look the same.  We walked to the Trevi Fountain and got gelato and a few more souvenirs and then headed back to our hostel to wait for our taxi.

Ruins on our way to the Colosseum; the inside joke of the entire trip was that Rome was a city of ruins... you'd turn a corner and woop, another ruin or really cool, huge monument that held significance or was attached to a random building along the side of the street.  I think the ruins captivated us so much because we just don't see ruins in our every day lives in Milan and then we came to Rome where history is literally around every corner.  

Making our way to the Colosseum

 

View from the inside

A view from the Colosseum

Roman Forum/Palatino Hill

We had a good hour and a half until our taxi was supposed to come so eventually Mere and I decide to order some fries from the bar.  Hence begins the "fry situation" as we dubbed it.  So, we go to the bar and are standing there for a good 5 minutes until a worker finally appears, a bartender who actually wasn't on the clock at the time.  We are confused because half an hour earlier, the waitress moseyed over to our table saying how bored she was... apparently she was so bored, she decided that she didn't need to work the rest of the day.  Anyway, the bartender who wasn't working took our order and so we waited at the bar.  Time is passing and still no fries and no workers to be found.  Eventually another bartender/hostel worker comes around, as does the waitress we saw earlier.  They are speaking in Italian but we realize there is confusion arising having to do with fries.  We chime and offer that we had ordered fries from the said non-working bartender.  The confusion is cleared up amongst the workers, however we are still fry-less.  Time is still passing and said working bartender disappears and reappears to tell us that the fryer is broken so we cannot have fries.  He feels bad, as does the rando girl sitting at the bar who we took to be a former worker and current friend.  Said friend actually feels terrible for and begins to list off numerous places where we can get fries.  We assure her that it's completely fine, we really just wanted to pass the time and weren't anywhere close to starving.  This does not satisfy her or the bartender and they begin to list off places where we can get pizza, including a place at the airport which is apparently incredible.  Again, we reassure them that indeed, we will survive without the fries and it is not something to be concerned about.  Said friend is satisfied, however, said bartender is not and he offers drinks and then shots because drinking something would be better than eating nothing.  We politely said no, there is nothing I want less than to be drunk on the taxi ride to the airport or the plane back to Milan.  We now have 15 minutes before our taxi is supposed to arrive and what do ya know, the fryer is working again!  Said bartender tells us this glorious information and says we can do take out for the fries so we say okay.  As the receptionist tells us our taxi is our front, said bartender arrives with the plates of fries and ketchup, naturally.  We say thank you and he just gives them to us even though we haven't paid for them... we think he felt bad about the hassle.  As we are eating them on our way out of the hostel, the taxi driver tells us we can't eat in the car.  So, after waiting about an hour for these fries, we finally get them for free but are forced to shovel them into our mouths because we can't eat in the taxi.  It was such a ridiculous situation!  So much hassle for such a little thing haha

We make it to the airport in PLENTY of time, very opposite our experience on the way to Rome, courtesy of leaving earlier for the airport and the ever present gliding into and out of lanes on the way there because, who needs turn signals anyway?  Italians don't, they also don't need stop signs, who would have thought (I have yet to see a stop sign in Milan).  We boarded on time, maybe even earlier, and realized that stupid people exist everywhere in the world... you have the woman in front of us who brought 3 bags to the gate when easyjet makes it very clear that you are only allowed one and that includes a purse.  The kind airport worker explained this to her as he counted the one, two, three bags she currently held.  I guess the signs with the one piece of luggage didn't stick.  On the shuttle bus to our plane, we noticed the benefits of "speedy boarding"... while the rest of us peasants were packed like sardines into 3/4 of the bus, the 2 speedy boarders were able to lounge around at the front of the bus in their spacey roped off section of the bus.  When we reached the plane, we wondered why it was taking so long to let us out and we realized it was because they had to let the speedy boarders out of the bus first so that said speedy boarders could take advantage of what they really paid for: speedy boarding.

All in all it was one of my favorite trips for sure and I can't get over how nice the weather was and how much we laughed the entire time.  Our time here is winding down and unfortunately, we know it :( Only about 5 more weeks left here, which seems like a lot until you realize that a week and a half is taken up by spring break and the last week is finals.  It's so sad to think that our time here is nearing it's end but I still have a lot to look forward to, especially my family coming to visit me at the end of my program.  That will definitely make my program ending a lot less bitter and a lot more sweet :)